In CrossFit, building muscle is not an easy task because it incorporates hard work, training, and discipline. Some athletes go through training cycles, but still, find it hard to show off their muscles. While there are so many other reasons behind this, one of the common and overlooked aspects of muscle building is CrossFit nutrition.Packing muscles and reducing body fat helps in making our bodies tighter and gives us the opportunity to burn more calories thus resulting in a leaner body. The body system requires a certain combination of nutrients to build muscle. Gone are the days when you just concentrated on the number of calories. Today, you have to be careful about where the calories are coming from. Proteins The debate around proteins is not about the viability of this nutrient in muscle building, but rather the required quantities for different levels of athlete activity. Currently, the recommendations are within the range of 0.5 grams and 2 grams per lb. of bodyweight. An athlete who weighs 150 lb. can take anything from 75 grams to 300 grams of protein per day. Protein plays a crucial role in the building, maintenance, as well as recovery of muscles. It has also been discovered that taking protein makes you feel fuller longer than before and helps in the burning of body fat. The important thing is to ensure you get enough protein so as to realize its benefits. Carbohydrates These are the main source of fuel. They provide you with energy to help you in powering through CrossFit workouts efficiently. The body system breaks down carbohydrates into glucose which it uses for energy or is stored as glycogen for future energy demands. To avoid a breakdown of protein during workouts, you need to take sufficient quantities of carbohydrates, particularly around the exercise time. Before you begin your training, choose carbs that are slow burning such as rice, sweet potatoes, and pasta. The advantage of these is that they help in keeping your sugar levels consistent and help avoid crushes in energy. Post-training, carbs play a key role in repair and growth of muscles. Water More than half your body system is made up of water. This means any dehydration leads to a sharp decline in the functioning of important body processes. Water is not a direct source of energy, but it plays an important role in transporting nutrients to the body cells. If you don’t hydrate properly, chances are you won’t last long in the CrossFit gym. Muscles look bigger and fuller when they are appropriately hydrated. Calories If you are to gain sufficient body mass, it is critical that you maintain a caloric surplus. Setting this surplus may not be a smooth ride because athletes have varying caloric needs. For a start, you can choose a particular amount of calories, stick to it, and then monitor your body weight and your body composition. If you find that you are losing weight while your body composition is the same, you should consider adding more calories. On the contrary, if you are gaining weight and body fat, reduce the number of calories.The above tips will point you towards the right direction, but consistency is what will deliver the ultimate prize. Motivate yourself and always remain consistent.

CrossFit During Pregnancy, The Facts Are you planning a kid and thinking about getting pregnant? Are you wondering whether you should continue or stop your CrossFit workouts during pregnancy? Yes, most of the expectant mothers might be having this question in their minds. Crossfitting is good for a pregnant woman or not is a hot topic to debate about. With the conflicting articles, lots of information available on the internet, suggestions from family and friends, it’s very easy for a woman to get lost in the vast sea of information. In this article, you are going to explore the facts about the CrossFit during pregnancy. Fact 1: Scale your workouts while pregnancy. It’s essential to firstly listen to what your body says. Just pay attention to the voice of your body while pregnant. Each day will be completely different from the previous one, and you may start feeling uncomfortable with certain movements. Slow down if you are feeling awkward with any of the CrossFit moves and start making some modifications. It’s also a fact that while pregnancy, a woman’s body releases the Relaxin hormone that causes ligaments to be a bit looser and may affect the balance adversely. Hence, it’s important to avoid box jumps and other similar moves. Fact 2: Workouts will never harm you or your baby. Exercise is highly important for an expectant mother and its baby. A mother and her baby actually share everything, including hormones. And if the mother is releasing endorphins, it will benefit her baby too. Certain studies have also revealed that the mothers who exercise and workout daily while pregnancy possesses larger placentas that means more oxygen exchange for her kid. Fact 3: You do not need to monitor your heart rate while workouts. Yes, it’s a widely prevailed myth that you will need to continuously monitor your heart rate while workout during pregnancy. It’s rather more important to listen again to what your body suggests; take breaks as needed.During pregnancy, the blood volume of a woman raises by around 50 percent, and this is the reason why a lady feels shortness of breath during workouts. You should also know that every minute workouts are excellent for any expectant mother as it provides them built in rest. Fact 4: You do not need to change your diet tremendously. If you were already including adequate protein, good fats and minerals in your diet, you will probably not have to change your diet much. Pregnant women are generally suggested to have Paleo or Primal diet. In case you were having everything needed for your baby already in your diet, you will probably not have to make several changes. You can also consult your doctor to ensure that you are including everything your baby needs from your diet. Fact 5: You are okay to continue with CrossFit during pregnancy. This is the biggest question any expectant mother may have in her mind. Be assured; you can continue being a crossfitter during this phase of life too. The functional movements we do while CrossFit is very beneficial for pregnant women. However, in case you have never done CrossFit before, and you are a newbie to it, go for hiring a personal trainer for your workout sessions. An experienced trainer will guide you throughout your workout and will help you and your baby stay fit.

For most people, the idea of mobility is more or less like rowing upstream. You need consistency and focus for you to make progress. With minimal effort, you won’t be able to do much; probably you will just maintain your current level of flexibility and mobility. You need to put to push yourself from rigidity into fluidity. Many CrossFit training routines incorporate mobility drills. It is important to spend a few minutes each day to work on your personal limitations. While it is appreciated that not everyone comes early or leaves late, to work on a few stretches and drills, there is absolutely no excuse for not improving your mobility.At an affordable price, you can put together a personalized mobility kit that you will use throughout your workouts. The following are some of the recommended tools that you should have on hand at your office or home so that you can gradually and consistently move towards mastering your mobility. Foam Roller This is an excellent CrossFit workout equipment targeting the larger areas of your body such as upper back, hamstrings, quads, and lats. The market has all sorts of foam rollers from different manufacturers. Do not be tricked into buying cheap rollers that are made from low-density foam. This is because such rollers are too soft and they do not last as long. The best are high-density rollers as they enable you to dig in. The approximate cost is $15 to $50. Lacrosse Ball If you want to get into hot sports such as the pec major, calves, deltoids, and plantar fascia, foam roller may prove ineffective because it is the relatively larger surface area. This is where the lacrosse ball comes in. It is recommended that you tape two balls together to make a peanut. This will give you an effective tool to deal with the thoracic spine irrespective of its stiffness. The cost is about $5 to $10. Stretch Out Strap A stretch out strap is used for different types of stretches in every area of your body. The beauty of this piece of equipment is that it has numerous loops that are built in to help you have lots of options when stretching out. The muscles targeted by stretch out straps include quads, hamstrings, hip flexors, shoulders, and adductors. You can pack your stretch out straps together with your luggage and do some stretching after your long flight. The cost of this mobility tool is just $12. Theracane Theracane is more precise in hitting the target areas than foam roller and lacrosse ball. Simply defined, it is a dip pressure massager that enables you to reach out to areas that previously were harder to reach such as your mid back, pec minor, and traps. The cost of theracane is approximately $29.In addition to the above incredible mobility tools for WOD training, you can invest in compression floss bands to facilitate your recovery in case of injuries. Floss bands compress your tissues thereby increasing shear that in turn glues together your tissues for quick healing. The compression also moves metabolic waste products and lymph out of your targeted muscle tissue. All said it would take consistent effort to improve your mobility. Push yourself hard and never lose hope!

If it is your dream to get better at CrossFit, then there are some tips you really have to embrace, especially for newbies. This article is going to give you a heads up and act as a motivation towards doing it successfully. In my short story, I really wanted to be able to do a muscle up just like every other CrossFitter. Every once in a while, I would attempt ring jumps- I used to get frustrated with every attempt which always ended up in fails anyway. This seemed to confuse me since I used to be a gymnast just a while back. What had changed? How hard could it really be? I knew I had the strength to do it. I used to do pull-ups and dips just a while back, but at that moment I couldn’t do a single ring jump. Other people in the gym were always shocked whenever I told them I wasn’t able to do one. They didn’t discourage me though; they would urge me to try harder. Sometimes this only added to my secret frustration. After having ‘my ego checked’ I started, doing drills much better with a little help from a gym assistant. I could notice significant progress, and before I even realized it, I was on a successful journey towards being a Crossfitter.Here are some tips I felt I had to share with you from my story; Show up The first step towards achieving this is showing up- definitely, has to be. It is not as obvious as you may rush to think. When you actually get to the gym, you would be surprised by the number of people who seem always to forget this concept; I was not an exception myself. Persistence is key in CrossFit Skipping days that you know are going to involve some tough workouts, you think you suck at only make matters worse for you. Honestly, if you are going to stick to this mentality, then you are really going to suck at CrossFit. Drop that sulky attitude today and push yourself to your limits. Commit If you are really up for this, then there is no way you can decide and show up once or twice a week. Running, spinning and other routine forms of exercise you’re holding on to- since you consider them ‘easier’ is not enough. This doesn’t mean you have to quit the exercises you love doing; I am simply trying to say that you have to make this your main focus to realize results faster. Value your strength and sweat Usually, many people who begin CrossFitting find that their endurance builds up pretty quickly. Exercises such as rowing, burpees and box jumps are never a problem after a while. You are going to love the good sweat associated with an awesome workout you’ve just had. In fact, in the gym, it’s quite sexy. Parting shot The bottom-line to the message in this article, in a nutshell, is that; if you really want to improve on something, anything- then practice makes perfect! If you want to run a marathon race, get out of your comfort zone and run. And if you want to become better at CrossFit, don’t be a lazy ass, head to the gym- you can do it!

CrossFit training has rapidly grown in popularity across the world in recent years. In the process, this has led to discussions about the advantages and disadvantages. CrossFit training has been scrutinized by various professions include doctors, fitness experts, personal trainers, professional athletes, and more. This has inspired me to write this blog outlining the Pros and Cons of CrossFit. Most of these points are derived from my own experiences while training at various boxes over the past 2 years. Here are the pros and cons you should be aware of: PROS: It has an awesome community aspect. CrossFit is quite unlike the commercial gym in the essence that you come to know the people at your box. You will find that most of these gyms have outings that many people show up to. Here, you will always get that feeling of teamwork and camaraderie during the workouts. There are constant coaching and support–sometimes you have no clue whether you’re doing an exercise right or not in a commercial gym. In as much as it may not be 1:1 training, there is always a coach to guide you through every workout. Leveling up – since you can keep track of how much you’re lifting daily, and you also know the number of your daily reps and sets, you will be able to notice a constant improvement. You also get to advance at your own pace, slowly but steadily improving on your workouts. It is humbling yet encouraging – in as much as you may end your workout fatigued like never before, you pride in the sense of accomplishment whenever you do a workout faster than the previous times. A sense of Competition – the fact that you are surrounded by people cheering you on and competing with you is simply amazing and encouraging. It urges you to push yourself further. It is an awesome outlet for former athletes who still love competition. Usually, after playing competitive sports throughout high school and college, many people usually feel that all of a sudden there’s nothing more to compete in. CrossFit provides that platform onto which you can keep going. You really get to know your limits. Sometimes the workouts can be frustrating- however, they can also teach you how to push through mental obstacles, you get to build your mental strength. It shapes ‘hot’ bodies. Many women out there keep saying they want to have that “toned” and attempt to get it with hours of cardio. What they don’t know is that these bodies are built every day in the gyms.  It builds nicely toned muscular endurance general body fitness – your body is going to be prepared for pretty much any athletic situation after doing only a few months of CrossFit. CONS: It is not the best if you are looking forward to specialization – you are going to get better at a lot of things in the gym, however, if you want to go the extra mile of specialization, say a powerlifter or a trained athlete, it’s advisable to find a specific coach for that sport. Odd programming – this is quite for the critics. Some may not agree with some workouts involved with CrossFit. For instance, there are some workouts which may call for high reps of snatches. These snatches are regarded as power Olympic moves that require one to be in a perfect form to be able to do them successfully.  They are not cheap either– enrolling in these highly intensive gym workouts can be two or three times the monthly cost of a standard commercial gym. However, I always find it is worth it. A bad coach can cause problems – this is especially so if you are up for some more advanced moves that may take months of learning to perform them right; with a bad coach, lifting the heavyweights can lead to horrible injuries. It’s always important to have a good coach who knows what he does. It can lead to addiction- this point can lie either in Pro or Con section depending on one’s perception. I happen to know quite a number of people who started CrossFitting and now all they do, think or talk about is CrossFit. It is easy to get carried away into this and in the process forget about other people’s feelings when all you can talk about is weights and workouts. Bear Grips offers a full line of gear to keep you protected during your CrossFit workouts. Check out our collection HERE

There are many common misconceptions about CrossFit. Today I felt the need to at least let you know what you're talking about (that’s if you really don’t). Otherwise, you are going to sound as bad as jogger trying to persuade a powerlifter about the cons of benching. It's nothing more than cardio! It’s not! Crossfit is all about strength, stamina and power lifts. It involves bodyweight and gymnastic movements, and of course, some interval and longer duration cardio. However, in this cardio are also 1RMs and strongman movements. So, your heart rate will pace up, but if yours isn't going to, then something is definitely missing from your workout recipe – that is intensity. It's not nicely programmed Seriously! - Saying that all of CrossFit training and WODs are programmed correctly is like saying all of the bodybuilding isn't programmed correctly. The programming may not be uniform across all gyms, or among everybody who scales exercises and loading according to their requirements. And if there’s any CrossFitter who may be unhappy with the programming, then such an individual is free to take his or her business to other gyms where the workouts are different. The best CrossFitters don't even do CrossFit! A similar complaint to this is that most of these professional crossfitters were already strong and skilled before they even started CrossFit. In as much as this notion may be true with some of them, the CrossFit Games today is filled with athletes in their mid 20's who have never found an opportunity to train more seriously until they started CrossFit. In short, they are true products of CrossFit training. It's dangerous! Lol! I don’t really understand what the boundaries of ‘dangerous’ really is- but hey, how safe are other sports either? CrossFit attracts many people, some of whom may be inexperienced. So it’s only normal if injuries occur because of the huge number of people registering every year. A few injuries happening to a few Crossfitters yearly should not be the reason you shy off, go and work out! It breaks the bank! Actually, it’s less costly than paying for a regular gym then hiring a personal trainer on top of that. At every CrossFit spot, you will find instructors coaching groups of people, and within that group, they get to work with you alone as the need arises. In the end, it's semi-personal training and doesn’t have to break the bank.

Just like any other sport, CrossFit has its own fair share of risk. Every time you move massive weights or perform some complicated exercises, a possibility exists that you may be injured. You could also get injured while out for a jog or even walking down the stairs in the morning. However, the main thing here is not about the injury rates in CrossFit, but rather how to come back after the injury. Rest and recovery is part of day-to-day CrossFit workouts, and even during injury, you need more rest so that your body can recover well. Below are some of the tips that will hasten your recovery during injury so that you can come back to the box life. Listen to Your Body When you are in the middle of a CrossFit workout routine, your body may be communicating something to you such as taking a rest or even stopping altogether. The same is applicable when you are coming back from injury. Listening to your body especially in the areas in which you got hurt is important. For instance, if it is the elbow that got hurt and when working out it flairs up, it is advisable you stop. In the normal routine, if your body experiences some discomfort in a WOD, you may be inspired to press on. This is not the case when you are resuming from injury. The body system will hint to you whether it is ready to take on some weights or execute certain movements. Follow Your Coach The primary job of your coach is to ensure as an athlete you are safe. They help you to alter or scale a WOD to match your abilities. Listen to your coach carefully and more so when coming back from injury. The relationship you build with your coach comes in handy during recovery because he will tell you the steps to take as you work your way back to full fitness. Seek Advice from Others Who Have Been There Before A majority of CrossFitters have an athletic background, and this means at one time in their career, they may have suffered injury. Don’t be silent, talk to some of these athletes. They have firsthand experience and workable solutions on how to recover. While it is true that CrossFit injuries and recovery experiences differ from one person to the other, it is also true that you may pick one or two words of wisdom from what they went through. Be Gradual Irrespective of the injury you sustained, your body system requires time to start communicating again. There is a strong correlation between physical tasks and the channels of communication between your body and your brain. Most injuries involve nerve damages, and this may take time for the communication signals to be restored.There is no point coming back to CrossFit to stress your body to perform at pre-injury levels. Scale your movements gradually as you build your fitness to a level where you will be comfortable taking off to full CrossFit training.

We all know that CrossFit is arguably one of the most challenging sports or physical events on the planet today. It is a mixture of many training disciplines and uses every energy system in one super workout. Many CrossFitters realize the fact that addition of a few research-proven supplements often has tremendous effects on their workout results. These are aspects of performance such as strength, training endurance, and general fitness.This triggered us to come up with this educational piece on Crossfit supplements for those want to have their WOD scores soaring high. Proteins Protein is the bodybuilding foods that are essential for our muscle growth, recovery, strength adaptations, and even shedding of fat. On the one hand, proteins can be naturally obtained from foods such as meat, fish, and eggs. On the other hand, protein supplementation is also available for athletes involved in CrossFit.Protein supplementation is not only convenient for crossfitters but also more affordable and free from fat or carbs. The benefit is that you can easily increase your total daily protein intake without consuming too many calories and accumulating body fat. Blended Supplements Also called pre-workouts blended supplements is a combination of several ingredients and to make one a complete solution. This type of CrossFit supplement is efficient for the consumer; it ensures they always get what they need, in the right dosage, and without having to use a variety of different products. Other Amino Acid Supplements Along with other basics like BCAAs and Leucine, there are also other useful amino acids or amino acid-like replicas that can work efficiently for a CrossFitter. Some of these are like; Creatine Glutamine Citrulline Beta-alanine When combined, these ingredients have many advantages benefits for a CrossFit athlete. Forget about the misconceptions about them; these are basically what CrossFit supplements contain.